Futurity: What Does Your Peace Machine Look Like?

Since early March, the Senior STEM Club at the Murphy School (a public K-8 in Dorchester) have been toiling away on a series of inventions that will change the world forever…

Echoing the story of Julian Munro and Ada Lovelace’s collaboration on the Steam Brain in Futurity, groups of students imagined, designed and built a machine that, when turned on, will make the world a better place.  Starting with an idea, they were tasked with writing a letter to the Royal Society of Scientists defending their invention and asking for support.  The Cambridge branch of the Royal Society (based at 64 Brattle St., Harvard Square) wrote back with feedback and encouragement for the enterprising young scientists.  Each group revised their preliminary schematics, collaborated with each other on improvements, and built a model of their machine out of found objects (just like how Eric Farber created the incredible Steam Brain out of roadside junk).

On March 29th, Eric Farber (Steam Brain engineer and drummer of The Lisps), César Alvarez (plays Julian Munro in Futurity, member of The Lisps, and composer/book writer of the musical), Sammy Tunis (plays Ada Lovelace), Edwin Lee Gibson (General), Emily Orling (Production Designer) and Annie DiMario (Production Dramaturg) traveled with me to the school for the unveiling of these marvelous prototypes.  Representing the Royal Society, we evaluated each presentation with a skeptic’s eye and conferred well into the night– but, I am happy to report, all inventions were given the greenlight for further development.

Since patents are pending, the Royal Society will profile a new Senior STEM Club peace machine every day on the A.R.T. blog…check back and see what utopia looks like through the eyes of a local middle schooler.

(STEM Club is a program in public schools sponsored by our Community Connections partner, Mass. General Hospital Youth Programs; it is a daily after-school opportunity for students to expand their knowledge and experience with Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.  Click here to for more info.)

Come on down to OBERON to see the peace machine that started it all, the Steam Brain, in action at Futurity: A Musical by the Lisps. You can get tickets here.